Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 14:58, 7 October 2009

This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Misplaced Pages contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Misplaced Pages's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Shortcut WP:POV

At Misplaced Pages, points of view (POVs) – cognitive perspectives – are often essential to articles which treat controversial subjects. The article should represent the POVs of the main scholars and specialists who have produced reliable sources on the issue. Misplaced Pages's official "Neutral Point of View" (NPOV) policy does not mean that all the POVs of all the Misplaced Pages editors have to be represented.

In Thought du Jour Harold Geneen has stated:

The reliability of the person giving you the facts is as important as the facts themselves. Keep in mind that facts are seldom facts, but what people think are facts, heavily tinged with assumptions.

Hard facts are really rare. What we most commonly encounter are opinions from people (POVs). Inherently, because of this, most articles on Misplaced Pages are full of POVs. An article which clearly, accurately, and fairly describes all the major, verifiable points of view will, by definition, be in accordance with Wikpedia's NPOV policy.

Each POV should be clearly labeled and described, so readers know:

• Who advocates the point of view
• What their arguments are (supporting evidence, reasoning, etc.)

Usage note

Some contributors to Misplaced Pages use the term POV to mean the antithesis of "NPOV", implying that a particular article or passage is affected by an editor's point of view. This is not what the term POV means in the context of this page, which terms this editorial "bias".

Misplaced Pages should describe all major points of view, when treating controversial subjects.

Biased writing

A Wikipedian contributor might be unaware that his writing is biased, if he harbors (possibly unconscious) assumptions about the popular opinion of one's area, country, culture, language, ethnicity, etc. Generally, this comes out in one of several ways:

• Writing from your local perspective on non-local pages
• Excessive assumption of local readership when writing about a topic specific to your locality
• And, of course, opinion and bias

Of course any article can be "unbalanced" because contributors have more knowledge of, or are more interested in, particular aspects of a subject than in other aspects. This is not "wrong", but making such an article more balanced is encouraged. For example, suppose there is an article about highways that is mostly about the US. A German who encounters this should not complain about Americocentrism, but alter the article to approach the subject from a wider perspective: what can be said about highways in general, that applies worldwide? Begin the article with this, and then discuss the specific variations in different countries.

All articles are completely dominated by a sane, adult human perspective. That does not count as bias. It would be just plain silly to protest that an article about bone cancer is biased because it is only told from the patient/doctor perspective and we are not told what bone cancer has to say on the subject. Cancer cells cannot speak for themselves, so any attempt to include their perspective would only be guesswork anyway. If a credible expert has tried to explain, say, human–cat relationship from a cat perspective, a summary of this might make a good addition to the article in question. Likewise, it might be interesting to read how severe schizophrenics view people without mental health problems. However, you cannot demand that such an addition is necessary for NPOV.

Local bias

The English language Misplaced Pages is inherently biased towards readers and speakers of English. English is the de facto primary language in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada and other nations, and will naturally attract many more editors from those nations. Additionally, English is widely accepted as a second language across the globe. English language Misplaced Pages articles should be written for an international audience.

Some simple examples:

• Using the names of seasons to date a particular event, e.g. the album was released in Spring 2001. Seasons happen at different times in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; spring in Canada is autumn in Australia. However, in many contexts (Gregorian calendar, Julian calendar, et al), the year starts at the same time worldwide, so this particular bias can be remedied by using terms such as "early", "middle", "late", etc.
• Terms such as overseas, abroad, in this country, or nationwide where no nation is clearly implied. However, certain terms such as "offshore" may be understood in a legal context to reference any jurisdiction which is separate from a citizenship, place of incorporation or other primary jurisdiction; this usage is particularly common in taxation and financial regulation.
• References to national or local laws without mentioning the appropriate jurisdiction. In articles not directly pertaining to the United States, for instance, terms such as "unconstitutional" or "Miranda rights" are likely to be misunderstood or simply irrelevant.
• References to local customs, such as holidays, that assume the reader shares an understanding of the reference. Independence Day in the United States (July 4) and Bastille Day in France (14 July) are not widely celebrated outside those nations and some historically associated areas. If in doubt, use the exact date.
• Changing articles en masse from one dialect of English to another, where the subject is not specific to a locality. For instance, if an article on philosophy is already written with British spellings such as centre, changing them to American spellings such as center is unnecessary; or vice versa.

Assuming the obvious

Something else that you need to watch out for are obvious facts which are not necessarily obvious to people from other areas. Examples include the level of support a political movement has or does not have (and particularly referring to "major parties" in a nation without linking an explanation of which parties these are – which may not be obvious to foreign readers), the names of the movements, demographic facts, geographic facts.

English language

Also be careful to avoid an English-speaking Point of View. Although country-specific and similar POVs are often easy to spot, this can be harder to spot.

While there is a strong argument to simply present history and politics in English the way they have always been presented in that language, there's a much stronger argument for sticking to neutral point of view, and avoiding reports of long-standing English cultural assumptions as fact. For one thing, there are many people in Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Caribbean nations such as Cayman Islands, etc. who speak English as a first language, who do not share these. In South America, the EU, Russia, India, Japan, China, etc. many people learn English very early, often simultaneously with another tongue. It is simply wrong to believe that everyone reading an article in English will understand UK or US cultural assumptions or find it non-controversial to make certain statements or use certain terms:

• Vocabulary – Simple English articles are available for those learning, or with poor mastery of, English. In the main English Misplaced Pages, there is still a need to avoid professional jargon and to keep language as simple and direct as the accurate treatment of the subject matter permits. Unusual or unfamiliar usages need to be briefly disambiguated; sometimes a single modifier suffices: "The scientist Marie Curie...".
• Names or dates of conflicts used in English-speaking sources sometimes poorly match those used in some other culture; it's critical to get the dates right for the context, and include as many alternative terms as necessary. The extent of this obviously depends on the context of the article. For example, "George VI was King of Britain during World War II (1939–1945)" but "Stalin was head of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War (World War II) from 1941 to 1945".
• Assuming that the term "British" includes the peoples of former British Colonies.
• Accounts of conflicts and their outcomes providing the interpretation of the side most English-speaking nations supported.
• Statements that a territory was "discovered" or "settled" when in fact it was visited or colonized. It is better to write "Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean" than "Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean".

Other points

Other key points to watch for when adapting material from country-specific sources:

• Spelling: see Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style for current recommendations on English spelling.
• Names of conflicts used in your locality (the US, UK, etc.) may not be the same as those on the list of wars, and may reflect a local viewpoint.
• Avoid biased comments about other countries. This rule, of course, applies in all directions.
• Units of measure – Use the units that are most appropriate to the context and, where appropriate, place an alternative form in parenthesis right after the units (for example, an article on a mountain in the United States should have its elevation given in feet with the approximate number of meters given right after). However, always use the measured form first and leave the converted form in parentheses (otherwise you are introducing error in the numbers!). The converted form should also not have more significant figures than the measured form (this gives a false impression of precision).

Other areas where POV comes into play

In addition to language and geographic issues, it is important to avoid other types of assumptions or biases about people. Some examples of biases to avoid are:

• Heteronormativity, namely assuming all people are heterosexual. Examples include assuming that any sexual activity carries a pregnancy risk, assuming that a child lives with a father and a mother, or assuming that dating involves people of different genders.
• Referring to people with disabilities using marginalizing terms, such as referring to people as "patients" when not specifically describing the routine of a hospital.
• Writing about people solely from the perspective of someone who perceives those people as a "problem". For instance, Misplaced Pages articles about mental conditions such as autism or social conditions such as homelessness should not be written from the perspective of those who want such people to go away.
• Referring to people's lives or actions in terms of the problems or opinions of those who disapprove of them. When writing something such as "the park has had a lot of problems with the homeless", consider that these "homeless" are people and would not want to be described this way. An improvement might be something such as "after the park was renovated, park officials began taking steps to show that individuals who were homeless were not welcome there".

A good rule of thumb in avoiding POV is to never refer to someone in a way you would not want to see used to refer to yourself or a loved one.

• Removing Bias in Language: Disabilities http://www.apastyle.org/disabilities.html
• Removing Bias in Language: Sexuality http://www.apastyle.org/sexuality.html

Pseudonyms

In articles about works of art, games, TV series and other subjects without estimable values, Wiki editors will often try to pass on POV opinions by writing under a pseudonym, e.g., "some fans think the New York Yankees are the greatest baseball players ever". Unless you can provide a survey, a review or any similar type of source for your praise, it does not belong in a Misplaced Pages article. The correct way to phrase the sentence would be: "The Yankees are Major League Baseball's most successful franchise with 26 World Series championships".

Use of WP:POV in one-line Edit Summaries

• Edit summaries are relatively short comments (so potentially subject to misinterpretation, or to oversimplification), cannot be changed after pressing Save, and often are written in haste, particularly if there is an edit war brewing or in progress. Especially when things are getting heated, remember to explain your edit.
• Explain yourself. Not sufficiently explaining edits can be perceived as uncivil, whether that's the editor's intention or not. Use good edit summaries, and use the talk page if the edit summary doesn't provide enough space or if a more substantive debate is likely to be needed.
• In short: Use of WP:POV as a shorthand in one-line Edit Summaries justifying reversion may prove offensive to the reverted editor. If a clear statement of the reason for labeling a reversion WP:POV cannot be fit into the one-line Edit Summary, a Talk page justification that explains matters is preferable.

See also

• Misplaced Pages:Content Forking
• Misplaced Pages:Controversial articles
• Misplaced Pages:How to put up a straight pole by pushing it at an angle
• Misplaced Pages:List of controversial issues
• Misplaced Pages:NPOV dispute
• Misplaced Pages:Neutral point of view/FAQ
• Misplaced Pages:Pages needing attention

Footnotes

1. Harold Geneen in his "Thought du Jour", cited by Michael Kesterton in The Globe and Mail on February 20, 2006 at page A14 in the Section of Social Studies, sub-section A daily miscellany of information.
2. Since most readers will be more familiar with the term 'World War II' than 'Great Patriotic War' it is probably better to explain the usage, even in articles about the Soviet Union.

• Misplaced Pages essays
• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view